HOUSTON, March 27, 2026, 06:10 CDT
CenterPoint Energy ended Thursday at $42.33, drawing renewed focus after MarketBeat highlighted Nordea Investment Management’s latest stake increase just a day earlier. The Houston utility’s shares come with a 23-cent quarterly dividend—annualized, that’s a roughly 2.2% yield based on Thursday’s finish.
Investors hoping for stability didn’t find it, as U.S. stocks closed out a turbulent session. The Nasdaq dropped 2.38%, putting it officially into correction territory—a decline of at least 10% from its recent peak. Utilities ended up as one of just two S&P 500 sectors in the green. “The ‘fog of war’ is prompting people to pull back on risk,” said Doug Beath, global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Reuters
At CenterPoint, income and growth are now tightly linked. Back in February, the company projected Greater Houston’s peak load would jump 50% by 2029—two years ahead of what they’d previously thought—as utilities across the U.S. race to ramp up capacity for data centers and other big customers. This week at CERAWeek in Houston, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright pointed out it’s not just about having power on the grid, but about delivering it when demand spikes.
Back in February, CenterPoint stuck with its 2026 adjusted earnings target—$1.89 to $1.91 a share—even after posting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.45. Those adjusted, or non-GAAP, results exclude certain items management says obscure the core business. The utility also bumped up its capital spending plan for 2026 through 2035 by $500 million, bringing the total to $65.5 billion.
CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells told investors the company is targeting roughly 10 gigawatts of new load by late 2029. He said larger-scale projects allow fixed costs to be shared by more customers, which, according to Wells, “help us keep our rates affordable.” The comments came during the company’s earnings call. Reuters
The dividend story is less complicated here. CenterPoint, which says it serves roughly 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas, announced a $0.23 per-share quarterly dividend in December—annualized, that’s $0.92.
Nordea lifted its stake in CenterPoint by 14.3%, according to a MarketBeat report from March 25 citing SEC filings. That brings its total to 522,801 shares—roughly $20.13 million, or about 0.08% of CenterPoint. The holding remains modest, but it’s another detail for investors watching the company’s ownership shifts.
CenterPoint isn’t the only utility chasing surging electricity demand. On Thursday, Duke Energy announced it secured the green light for a fresh gas-fired project in South Carolina. NextEra Energy, for its part, grabbed land in Texas earlier this week, lining up a major gas plant to serve data center growth.
Still, there are clear risks here. CenterPoint flagged that its 2026 guidance hinges on several variables: customer growth, usage trends, capital recovery, tax assumptions, financing terms, and what regulators or courts decide. The company’s fourth-quarter numbers felt the hit from increased interest costs. Meanwhile, the power grid is feeling the heat too, pressured by surging demand from data centers.
Investors are eyeing whether increased spending and quicker Houston load growth can actually deliver more stable earnings—without squeezing customer bills. That’s just as critical as the dividend here.
